Creating Twin Light Smokehouse’s smoked salmon or smoked mussels spread is not a quick-and-easy proposition, explains owner Melissa Marshall. The fish is first soaked in a brine of salt, sugar, and a strategically unspecified combination of herbs and spices. Then it is sliced and placed on racks, where it is refrigerated for 24 hours to draw out the moisture that the flavorful smoke will adhere to. Only then does it get infused with hickory smoke and then sealed up for sale.
“We brine it, rack it, smoke it, pack it—it’s a long process.” But, she says, it’s totally worth it: “I’ve tried everybody’s smoked stuff and I don’t think they compare.” Marshall’s path to meticulously crafting smoked fish products began during the Covid pandemic, when she moved back to Gloucester after working for four years in supply chain management. She quickly started helping her mother run Cape Ann Fresh Catch, a community-supported fisheries business that sells very fresh seafood directly to consumers using a model based on the community-supported agriculture shares used by many farms.
Smokehouse Tutorials
At the same time, the owner of a small, local smokehouse had decided he was ready to sell his business and approached Cape Ann Fresh Catch to ask if they were interested. It immediately seemed like a natural match to Marshall. It would allow the business to add products—and thus revenue—while also cutting down on waste by turning last week’s left over fish into next week’s gourmet specialty. “It was kind of a natural thing to smoke whatever we had leftover,” she says. “I thought it would fit our profile.”
First step: Learn how to smoke fish. Working with the previous owner, Marshall learned the ins and outs of the process, from what wood to use—she swears by hickory—to how to control the smoker settings to adapt to temperature and humidity, and how to make on-the-fly adjustments during the process. She clearly learned the lessons well, because the products began to catch on. Twin Light started selling at farmers markets, at some of the 30 stores and organizations that serve as pick-up spots for Cape Ann Fresh Catch, and as add-ons to customers’ fish shares, which are delivered throughout greater Boston. The operation began to grow, expanding from one smoker roughly the size of a refrigerator to four commercial size smokers.
Whole Foods Expansion
In 2023, Twin Light struck a deal with Whole Foods to sell its products at 150 of the chain’s stores through the Northeast, a move that has been integral to the smokehouse’s ongoing success, Marshall says. The Whole Foods team coached her through the process of getting her company ready to supply a major chain, and encouraged her to apply for a woman-owned business certification. Having such a steady source of demand has also allowed Twin Light to keep its prices steady for the last two years, Marshall says.
“Whole Foods was really instrumental in how much our business has grown,” she says. “For such a big company, they have a lot of great local people working for them—they really want to see you do well.” Today, the regular lineup includes two varieties of smoked salmon, a cold-smoked haddock finnan haddie, smoked mussels, and smoked mussels spread. Smoked salmon bacon brushed with a sweet maple rum glaze and smoked with a combination of hickory, apple, and cherry woods is an occasional—and very popular—offering as well. Rotating specials have included steelhead trout, Alaskan king salmon, and a spread made of smoked mahi mahi.
Pandemic Partnerships
During the pandemic shutdowns, Twin Light worked with oyster farmers from Cape Cod who suddenly found themselves with no restaurant customers for their shellfish. Marshall and her team created a smoked oyster spread to help them preserve and sell the glut of oysters.
“I’ll smoke anything,” Marshall says. Though it’s already more than a full-time job running the smokehouse and helping manage Cape Ann Fresh Catch, Marshall has some more plans on the horizon, including a potential partnership with another regional grocery chain. Even as the company continues to flourish, Marshall intends to keep the total production modest to maintain her uncompromising attention to creating good food. “We are an artisanal, microbatch smokehouse,” she says. “I’m always stressing quality over quantity.”